Referendum Seeks Lasting Solution to Bahraini Regime’s Illegitimacy: Activist
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Bahraini opposition figure said an anti-regime referendum, started today concurrently with the state-run parliamentary election, aims to attract global support to find a solution to decades of instability under the rule of Al Khalifa, which he said lacks legitimacy.
“Bahrain’s popular referendum aims to find a fundamental solution under the supervision and auspices of the international community, so that years of instability caused by the illegitimacy of the ruling regime would end in the country,” Rashed al-Rashed, a leader of Bahrain’s February 14 movement, said in a gathering in Tehran, organized by the Tasnim News Agency.
While the Bahraini regime plans to hold elections on November 22 in spite of protests, the opposition groups in the Persian Gulf nation have devised plans to hold popular referendum on Friday and Saturday.
According to opposition leaders, a vast majority of political groups inside or outside Bahrain have decided to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Elsewhere in his comments, Rashed said the referendum will ask people, “Do you agree that your fate is decided with the election of new political establishment in Bahrain with the United Nations monitoring?”.
The political activist noted that the necessary mechanism for the regime change will be provided and guaranteed if the UN supports the referendum in Bahrain.
“The referendum wants to send the international community the message that Bahrain could find a basic solution to the crisis and the 200-year-old problem,” he explained.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling on the Al Khalifa royal family to step down from power. The protesters have also slammed the Manama regime’s arrest and torture of political activists.
Many Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
